13 thoughts on “USA: Lockheed, Northrop, and other Iraq war profiteers”

Raytheon has been awarded a $5.3 million contract by NATO Maintenance and Supply Agency to provide tower-based, elevated persistent surveillance capability for protection of NATO forces in Afghanistan. The Enhanced Surveillance Systems has similarities to Rapid Aerostat Initial Deployment (RAID) systems currently deployed by the U.S. Army in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In addition to providing the enhanced surveillance systems equipment, Raytheon will also provide all logistics support services required to keep the systems operational.

This award demonstrates the recognized value of Raytheon’s persistent surveillance systems to defense forces worldwide, said Pete Franklin, vice president, National and Theater Security Programs, for Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems (IDS). Raytheon is proud to have been selected by NATO to provide this critical capability, and we are committed to rapidly delivering these life saving systems to our coalition forces.

Raytheon first developed RAID to meet the military’s critical need for persistent surveillance in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. RAID consists of infrared and other sensor systems, elevated on a stationary platform, capable of detecting hostile troop and equipment movement at great distances. This capability enables U.S. and coalition forces to respond rapidly to threats.

WEAPONS maker Lockheed Martin has tested a hovering robot intended to shoot down enemy ballistic missiles. Video of the December 2 flight test of the “Multiple Kill Vehicle,” at Edwards Air Force Base in California, has made it onto YouTube, and it looks like something out of the Terminator movies. [Click on link above to watch the video.]

Inside a large steel cage, Lockheed’s MKV lifts off the ground, moves left and moves right, rapidly firing as flames shoot out of its bottom and sides, FOXNews reports.

The MKVs would be mounted on carrier missiles which would take them into space to engage enemy nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles at the peak of their trajectory arcs, The Pentagon said.

The MKVs would then break off from the carrier vehicles and shoot at enemy warheads with big bullets, “kinetic interceptors” in military-speak, before dropping back down to Earth.

Rival defence contractor Raytheon was working on its own multiple kill vehicle program, the US Missile Defence Agency said.